Views from the Choir Loft

“Tu Es Petrus” (Rec. 2017 Symposium)

Jeff Ostrowski · February 25, 2018

HIS MORNING, I stumbled upon a frightening disclosure by a popular Catholic composer who shall remain nameless. He admitted in a public statement that his sacred music compositions were attempts to copy John Denver. He also confessed that he knew nothing about music theory and “just wanted to play my guitar at church.” Surely something like this will demoralize us, right? No, it won’t—let us remember that serious Catholics will always desire authentic, holy, dignified music. No matter how many people imitate John Denver on the guitar in our churches, legitimate composers like Palestrina and Victoria will always be cherished by serious people. Period. ¹

When we discover people replacing the traditional Catholic music with poor imitations of John Denver, we must find the courage to say: “Not in my church.”

Let me demonstrate such love still exists:

The following beautiful piece by Lorenzo Perosi (d. 1956) was sung by participants of the 2017 Symposium, conducted by Dr. Horst Buchholz.

Sign up for Sacred Music Symposium 2018.

Don’t miss your opportunity to deepen your knowledge of authentic Roman Catholic music!

Come meet friendly Catholics who desire to worship Almighty God with dignified music!

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 For more on this, read about “the worm that dieth not” here and here.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski

15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski

15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski